What's more important?

Does the best interest of DCS or the best interest of the child have more importance? I've known of this situation for a couple of months now but have just now gotten the nerve to blog about it.

Cori has two sisters (twins) who were removed from their home along with her just over 6 years ago. Both twins have BIG issues - mental retardation and mental illness. They were placed together in therapeutic foster care. They bounced from foster home to foster home for the next several years, as no one home could handle them together. Eventually, an adoptive home was found and they were placed there together. That home, like the rest, couldn't keep both twins. They had one removed and legally adopted the other. The removed twin was placed in a residential school for people with developmental disabilities and, within her abilities, is doing well. The adoptive mom of the other twin died last year and the adoptive father surrendered his rights so that twin is back in foster care, too.

So, to sum it up: Cori and Twin A are placed here in the same town. Twin B is in foster care at the other end of the state where her adoptive parents lived. Here comes the power play among the different DCS offices. The other end of the state, claiming that Twin B has sisters here in the middle of the state, want to "return" her to the jurisdiction of our DCS. Our DCS, knowing how hard these kids are to place, doesn't want responsibility for her. Our DCS office refuses to take her saying she (due to adoption) is no longer the sister of the two girls placed here. (And, legally, they are right, but, to the kids especially, they are WRONG!)

To prove their point, our DCS is not allowing any contact between the girls here and the one girl at the other end of the state. They feel, that by allowing visits, they are acknowledging that the girls are sisters. If they acknowledge the girls are sisters, then they lose their argument and have to take jurisdiction of Twin B and be responsible for placing and maintaining her.

So, Cori and Twin A are here, very upset that they can't see their sister. Bureaucracy is over their heads. All they know is they have another sister who lives 3 hours away and they aren't allowed to see her. I'm not usually one to stir things up, but I've encouraged Cori to call her GAL. I'm thinking, since she is appointed by the court to represent the girls' best interest, she is the only one who can push these visits through.

Bureaucracy be damned. These girls lived together until they were 9 (Cori) and 7 (twins) years old. The only parent in the home was their mother. She did a few months after her rights were terminated. The only thing they have from their past is each other. And, due to financial/supervisory issues of adults (the adults charged with meeting all their needs, by the way) they are being denied contact with each other. That just sucks.